The Jungle is Neutral: A Soldier's Two-Year Escape from the Japanese Army | 
 enlarge | Author: F. Spencer Chapman
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.49
You Save: $7.46 (50%)
New (15) Used (19) from $5.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 94584
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1592281079
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN: 9781592281077
ASIN: 1592281079
Publication Date: August 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Publisher's Overstock, Excellent Condition, may have remainder mark
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Product Description
THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like a tussle in a schoolyard.
F. SPENCER CHAPMAN, the book's unflappable author, narrates with typical British aplomb an amazing tale of four years spent as a guerrilla in the jungle, haranguing the Japanese in occupied Malaysia.
Traveling sometimes by bicycle and motorcycle, rarely by truck, and mainly in dugouts, on foot, and often on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruits sympathetic Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters. Their mission: to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In riveting scenes, they blow up bridges, cut communication lines, and affix plasticine to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They build mines by stuffing bamboo with gelignite. They throw grenades and disappear into the jungle, their faces darkened with carbon, their tommy guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the moonlight.
And when he is not battling the Japanese, or escaping from their prisons, he is fighting the jungle's incessant rain, wild tigers, unfriendly tribesmen, leeches, and undergrowth so thick it can take four hours to walk a mile.
It is a war story without rival.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
A Must Read for Guerrilla Warfare Junkies August 22, 2008
Other reviews here are quite accurate. This is a quick, very interesting read about a British major who "willingly" remained in Japanese occupied Malaysia for 3 and 1/2 years -- despite being hunted by men, animals, and disease. This book is something along the lines of Lawrence of Arabia meets Heart of Darkness or Dispatches. The first 100 pages of this book will leave any guerrilla warfare junkie drooling. Having read various accounts of guerrilla warfare from Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Pacific Islands -- this is a cut above. The best information this book provides is amazing detail about nighttime raiding and guerrilla camp organization. Che Guevara's diaries seem incoherent and lacking in comparison. The author is an amazing individual -- look him up on Wikipedia, he's written another dozen adventure books. However, the majority of this book is semi-tedious accounts of day-to-day life is the miserable jungle, being sick, diet, etc.
If you're interesting in WWII, Malaysia, guerrilla warfare, or adventure stories along the lines of Shackleton -- this is a must read.
 Good introduction to insurgent warfare June 6, 2007
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book could have been an excellent five star book had it kept up the action at the pace from page 1 to page 100. Those pages should be given to every western military college and used as a briefing on insurgent warfare. In a two week period the author of this book and two fellow soldiers blew up eight Japanese locomotive trains, numerous trucks, and miles of rail road tracks. This commando team killed well over 500 Japanese Army soldiers and - perhaps - were much more effective against the IJA than the weak and ill led Allied armies that surrendered to Japan in early 1942. The trouble with this book is he author becomes a training instructor for the communists and other non-regular soldiers fighting the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army). So, the book becomes more involved with the day-to-day running of camp life from about page 130 until page 330. So, from mid 1942 until early 1945 this excellent soldier tells about training insurgents, living in a camp, putting up with illness, and there is lots of writing on eating.
So, yes, I read this book. Is it worth it? Yes, he gives good leadership advise on conducting small unit leadership in a jungle type enviorment. The centralized location and ramdom attacks on enemy targets allows a very small group of soldiers to do massive damage to IJA operations. The bits on camp life and cooking get a little long. I'm not making this part up; on every three pages he will give a long description on a meal.
Past page 330 the book gets wildly interesting again. Liberator bombers are used as long range supply drop transports and they are seen operating all over the SE Asia area. The author makes contact and starts living the normal life of a soldier. He admits that he missed the main parts of the war. While he initially helped hinder IJA in 1942 and trained insurgents in late '42 to early '45 it was the other allied soldiers who fought and won from Burma to Stalingrad. The author admits that he sort of wishes that he had been part of that action.
But this is a fair war book and I'll give it a nice 3 star rating. It give insight into jungle operations and how to conduct insurgent actions.
I hope you enjoy this good book.
Interesting read January 19, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I had read a review on the "The Jungle is Neutral" over 30 years ago and finally found the opportunity to purchase and read the book. Book is written mostly as a chronicle of what happened to the author in what is now Malaysia during the Japanese occupation of WWII. It is an interesting read of that trying time and the author's nerve and tenacity (as well as a lot of luck) needed to survive in the "wild." Book is well-written but is often too interested in minutiae. Still, I enjoyed the read and the information conveyed.
Tom
 Outstanding December 31, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book could easily be overlooked as an outdated World War 2 yarn.
For years "The Jungle is Neutral" was regarded as the Bible of jungle warfare training.
For the 21st Century reader, it is an amazing,uplifting tale of the human spirit overcoming overwhelming odds.
A must read for the professional soldier.
Some amazing parts February 22, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Some of the descriptions of survival & evasion in the jungle were incredible. The first half of the book had my interest more & then I think it tailed off in the second half. Worth reading.
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